Abbott on narrow path to school safety

1of11Gov. Greg Abbott reveals his school safety proposals at a press conference at the Hays County Law Enforcement Center in San Marcos on May 30, 2018.Photo: Tom Reel, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

2of11Senator Ted Cruz speaks with Governor Greg Abbott as President Donald Trump lands at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base before meeting with those affected by the Santa Fe High School Shooting Thursday, May 31, 2018 in Houston.Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

3of11President Donald Trump shakes hands with Governor Greg Abbott after landing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base Thursday, May 31, 2018 in Houston. Trump is scheduled to meet with those affected by the Santa Fe High School Shooting before attending a fundraiser. (Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

4of11President Donald Trump is greeted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as he arrives to Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base in Houston, May 31, 2018. Trump is slated to meet with families of victims and first responders of the Santa Fe High School shooting, as well as with members of the Texas community on Thursday. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)Photo: Doug Mills / New York Times

5of11President Donald Trump meets with US Representative Randy Weber, left, Senator Ted Cruz, top center, and Governor Greg Abbott, bottom center, after landing at Ellington Field Joint Reserve Base Thursday, May 31, 2018 in Houston. Trump is scheduled to meet with those affected by the Santa Fe High School Shooting before attending a fundraiser. (Michael Ciaglo / Houston Chronicle)Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

6of11Governor Greg Abbott unveils his plan to enhance school safety during a press conference at Dallas Independent School District headquarters in Dallas, Wednesday, May 30, 2018. Abbott on Wednesday called for schools to have more armed personnel and said they should put a bigger focus on spotting student mental health problems but he proposed only a few small restrictions on guns following a deadly shooting at a high school near Houston. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News via AP)Photo: Vernon Bryant, Associated Press

7of11Gov. Greg Abbott reveals his school safety proposals at a press conference at the Hays County Law Enforcement Center in San Marcos on May 30, 2018.Photo: Tom Reel, San Antonio Express-News

9of11Alice Tripp, Legislative Director of the Texas State Rifle Association, left, and Ed Scruggs, Board Vice-Chair of Texas Gun Sense, right, listen to Texas Gov. Gregg Abbott, center, during a roundtable discussion to address safety and security at Texas schools in the wake of the shooting at Santa Fe, at the State Capitol in Austin, Texas, Wednesday, May 23, 2018. Lawmakers explored the prospect of a red flag law to take guns away from those deemed to be a danger to others by a judge, but both Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled they did not see the need for such a law in Texas at this time. Two dozen groups were invited to attend the session, which was expected to include conversations on monitoring students' mental health. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)Photo: Eric Gay, STF / Associated Press

10of11Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, with his wife Cecilia, and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, right, place flowers at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas, May 20, 2018. A gunman killed 10 people and wounded 13 others at the high school on Friday. (Michael Stravato/The New York Times)Photo: MICHAEL STRAVATO, STR / NYT

11of11A woman embraces Texas Gov. Greg Abbott as he joins a congregation on Sunday, May 20, 2018, at Arcadia First Baptist Church, after a school shooting at Santa Fe High School on Friday, in Santa Fe, Texas. (Marie D. De Jesus/Houston Chronicle via AP)Photo: Marie D. De Jesus, MBO / Associated Press

AUSTIN — Justin Anderson, a Comal County rancher and longtime National Rifle Association member, listened carefully as Gov. Greg Abbott laid out his school-safety plan, curious to see how the conservative Republican would protect his Second Amendment rights.

“He’s (moving) carefully here, not giving up the farm to appease any liberal lefties who want to restrict firearm ownership across the board, but taking a number of actions that will improve school safety,” Anderson, 56, said Thursday.

He had just finished reviewing Abbott’s 44-page blueprint that seeks to prevent another school shooting like the May 18 attack at Santa Fe High School.

“In Texas, one step over the line on this issue is going to bring him a lot of heat,” Anderson warned.

The governor finds himself on a thin, precarious line.

One one side are Texans who defend the Second Amendment the way Davy Crockett fought at the Alamo.

On the other is an increasingly urbanized state where parents want him to do something about school shootings, including tighter gun restrictions.

While most political experts agree that Abbott is on safe ground for now, the November election is far in the future and some Second Amendment advocates already are getting antsy.

Four gun-rights groups announced they have “serious concerns with many points” of the plan, including several provisions highlighted by Abbott as key elements.

“Right now, this is a fine line for politicians,” said Robert Spitzer, a political scientist at the State University of New York at Cortland, an expert on the politics of gun control. “Abbott has unimpeachable conservative credentials that allow him to suggest such things as a ‘red flag’ law that’s a tip of the hat to the other side that wants more restrictions.”

But unlike other states where Republican governors have faced a political backlash for supporting stronger gun-control measures, he and others said Abbott has chosen to focus on increased security at schools, providing more armed security guards and funding more mental health screening to identify mentally unbalanced shooters before they kill — all options that will not anger the politically potent firearms lobby.

A poll released Thursday by Quinnipiac University found Texas voters strongly support requiring background checks for all gun sales by 93 percent to 6 percent, while 49 percent of those surveyed said they support stricter gun laws generally and 45 percent said they do not.

The poll included 961 Texans who identified themselves as voters who were surveyed by phone from May 23 through Tuesday with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percent.

After the Parkland school shooting in February that left 17 dead and 17 injured, Florida Gov. Rick Scott signed a measure in March that raises the age to purchase a firearm from 18 to 21, bans bump-stocks that make semiautomatic weapons fire as though they were fully automatic and imposes a three-day waiting period on the purchase of long guns, while allowing some teachers to be armed.

In Vermont, Republican Gov. Phil Scott in April signed into law sweeping changes to raise the age for gun purchases from 18 to 21, ban bump stocks, require background checks on all gun purchases and limit the size of ammunition magazines.

Neither state had been considered a mecca for gun control before. Both governors have been strong Second Amendment supporters. Both said the recent spate of school shootings had forced them to do some soul-searching.

Abbott said much the same thing Wednesday as he announced his 40-point plan to bolster school safety in Texas.

“I doubt there has ever been a Texas governor with a more pro-gun record,” he said during a news conference in San Marcos to detail his plan. “I will never allow the Second Amendment to be infringed. But I will promote safe gun ownership.”

Abbott did make several notable recommendations: Courts should be allowed to prevent some Texans from owning or possessing firearms if they are deemed dangerous. Gaps in current background checks should be closed. Parents can face felony charges if they allow children 17 and younger access to firearms and they are used to kill or seriously injure. A registry of stolen guns would be established.

But sweeping gun ownership restrictions, like those adopted in Florida and Vermont, aren’t on Abbott’s list.

When it comes to his potentially controversial recommendations, such as when to deny someone the right to buy a gun or requiring gun owners to lock up their weapons, Abbott has decided to let the Legislature figure out the details, insulating himself from decisions likely to anger either side in the gun-control debate.

Those generally are the ones that gun-rights groups — Texas Firearms Freedom, Open Carry Texas, Lone Star Gun Rights and Texas Gun Rights — have announced they are opposing.

“He’s in the lane, and he’s in the zone on this issue,” Austin political lobbyist-consultant Bill Miller said of Abbott’s plan, echoing the sentiments of nearly a dozen other political scientists and consultants both GOP and Democratic. “When you’re in the zone and hitting all the right notes, you’re doing well politically.”

Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, the Democratic nominee running to unseat Abbott in November, is among those who disagree.

She supports universal background checks, limits on magazine size and restrictions on gun ownership for the mentally unfit and domestic abusers.

“It is astounding how few of Gov. Abbott’s proposals directly address gun violence and how he ignored some of the most critical steps we must take,” she said. “Gov. Abbott’s proposals accept gun violence in our schools and communities as inevitable and unavoidable. We must demand more.”

Texas voters support a nationwide ban on the sale of assault weapons by 50-44 percent, Quinnipiac says.

Anderson, the Comal County rancher, said he’s going to monitor Abbott and the Legislature closely in the coming months to make sure they don’t go what he’d consider too far. Not just as an owner of firearms, but as a Texan with two school-age children.

“That’s where we’ll find out who gets to share in the credit, and who gets the blame,” he said.